"Am at a point where I'm driving for myself and the team - and no one else"

In recent years, Valtteri Bottas competed for the world championship with Mercedes time after time. As of 2017, he had the material to take his first World Championship title in Formula 1 five times in a row. However, the Finn was always a bit in the shadow of Lewis Hamilton and it makes him happy to have stepped out of that shadow with his move to Alfa Romeo.

At Alfa Romeo last winter, he was welcomed with open arms. The team said goodbye to Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, so they were looking for a driver who was available and had a lot of experience. Bottas met those conditions and was bombarded as the team leader, with rookie Guanyu Zhou at his side. The picture that was painted made for a driven Bottas.

"I am at a point in my career where I drive for myself and the team - and nobody else," says the 32-year-old driver in an interview with BILD. That he is not competing for victories at Alfa Romeo, Bottas has accepted. "Of course I love winning or being on the podium, but I'm not sad about my new situation. On the contrary. It motivates me to work with the team on a task and then hopefully see the results."

Bottas has a lot of confidence

Bottas looks at the bigger picture and states that perspective is especially important. In the view of the current number eight in the world championship, that's fine within his Italian-Swiss employer. It also explains why Bottas decided to immediately sign a three-year contract until the end of 2024.

Alfa Romeo seems to have its act together relatively well in 2022. The car is a lot more competitive than in recent seasons and in terms of speed it can invariably be driven in the points. It is important that the reliability is good. The C42 has had problems on several occasions.